Chess In the Air

DECEMBER 6, 2024

There are no hangars for gliders in Boulder and tie down space is limited. In thermals the V3M is even easier and more stable than the V2 (which requires more rudder to remain coordinated). A lifting aid is required to mount and remove the tail dolly which is a bit of a nuisance. Easy rigging and ground handling.

Density Altitude 98

Density Altitude Cockpit Tail Runway 98

Vintage Aviation News

FEBRUARY 15, 2025

(Nigel Hitchman) The story of the Breguet Deux-Ponts begins even before WWII, when Breguet Aviation began design work on the concept for a large four engine transport with two decks for passengers called the Breguet 760, which was based on the wings and tail assembly of the Breguet 730 flying boat.

Tail 66

Tail Cargo Stability Payload 66

Plane and Pilot

OCTOBER 29, 2024

I lamented that there was no tail tie-down until I remembered that I had brought three welded rebar tie-downs and a heavy hammer to drive them in. When you discover too late that the old rudder lock doesn’t fit the new rudder… The local hardware store had pool noodles, PVC tubing, and rope.

Weather 81

Weather Runway Knot Rudder 81

Vintage Aviation News

MAY 6, 2024

Brooks had long wished to own an airworthy Flying Fortress as his father, Elton Brooks, had flown 35 missions as a B-17 tail gunner with the 570th BS, 390th BG from RAF Framlingham in England. Left unchecked, the fire consumed most of the aircraft; just the tail and outboard wing sections survived the blaze.

Tail 126

Tail Airplanes Cockpit Firewall 126

Vintage Aviation News

JUNE 17, 2024

Any dust, dirt, and debris that may have accumulated while being worked on in the hangar was first washed off. Using a sprayer system that does not create much overspray, the aircraft would be painted in place in the museum’s main hangar. Next came the process of acid etching the aluminum surface.

Cockpit 105

Cockpit Rudder Tail Hangar 105

Vintage Aviation News

JANUARY 10, 2025

But there was also the project to build the new hangar to do the work in, which was completed at the end of 2011, so now the work could begin in earnest. Two months later in September, 2011 I was back again, observing the progress on the aircraft and the hangar nearing completion. The nose art had also now been applied!

Cockpit 111

Cockpit Hangar Pilot Rudder 111

Air Facts

OCTOBER 7, 2024

It was a beefed up, militarized version of the Beechcraft Bonanza with a narrowed fuselage and conventional tail, seating two pilots in tandem cockpits with controls and indicators configured similarly to tactical aircraft of the period. Dropping like an inverted dart tail first, Morris, from his aft cockpit perch exclaimed,“Wheeeee!”

Cockpit 98

Cockpit Rudder Tail Indicated Airspeed 98

Air Facts

OCTOBER 9, 2024

I love flying with the clam shell door and windows open with just the stick in my right hand, throttle in my left, and feet dancing on the rudders, taking in the sights and smells of the world below. The ability to share this with my wife makes it that much more enjoyable. Days like these are the reasons I learned to fly.

Weather 94

Weather Hangar Rudder Tail 94

Vintage Aviation News

APRIL 26, 2024

Photo copyright Russell Munson] On April 26th, 1964 a radial-powered biplane with wings and tail in Champion Yellow and Stearman Vermillion-painted fuselage took off from an airfield near Lumberton, NC. Interestingly, that F-24R – formerly NC77647 and later G-FANC – was exported to the UK but was destroyed in a hangar fire in 2003.”

Airplanes 105

Airplanes Aileron Tail Hangar 105

Photographic Logbook

SEPTEMBER 16, 2023

But space in the main hangar is incredibly limited and that relegates several other aircraft to sitting out in the weather. Unfortunately, the close confines of the MAAM hangar made getting a good photo of the unique artifact quite challenging. There is no room in the hangar to attach the Black Widow's wings outboard of the tail booms.

Torque 52

Torque Airplanes Clearance Horizontal Stabilizer 52

Plane and Pilot

OCTOBER 29, 2024

I lamented that there was no tail tie-down until I remembered that I had brought three welded rebar tie-downs and a heavy hammer to drive them in. When you discover too late that the old rudder lock doesn’t fit the new rudder… The local hardware store had pool noodles, PVC tubing, and rope.

Weather 52

Weather Runway Knot Rudder 52

Fear of Landing

OCTOBER 18, 2024

Catalina Airport DC3 Hangar photographed by by Don Ramey Logan in 2013. My feet danced on the rudder pedals as I fought to keep the plane going straight down the runway. They saw the tail of the air craft, about a mile west of the airport and 300 feet below. CC-BY-SA 3.0 It was a lot harder than I thought it would be.

Runway 52

Runway Altimeter Pilot Lift 52

Vintage Aviation News

JUNE 10, 2024

But just as Vraciu and his wingman, Ensign Lou Little, who were at the tail-end of the formation and about to make their dives, Vraciu spotted a flight of A6M Zeros between 2,000 and 3,000 feet above him and Little coming from their 7 o’clock position.

Cockpit 128

Cockpit Tail Pilot Stability 128

Vintage Aviation News

SEPTEMBER 2, 2024

This was the same aircraft where the Bellanca Aircraft Company set up its factory and where Air Service had built a new hangar in 1935 on the site of one that had burned in 1934 (Today, Air Service’s 1935 hangar now serves as the home of the Bellanca Airfield Museum). I went by Tom’s hangar to get his opinion.

Firewall 98

Firewall Airplanes Hangar Tail 98

Vintage Aviation News

JULY 5, 2024

During a subsequent two-day time period the MBCC staff reassembled the Prone Meteor, before moving into Hangar 2 on NAM’s Southfield Site. The tailfin was modified with additional area forward of tail plane, with a Meteor NF Mk.12-type Local forklift hire was kindly arranged by AEM Lifting from Tuxford, Notts.

Cockpit 119

Cockpit Rudder Stability Pilot 119

Plane and Pilot

OCTOBER 3, 2024

True, a slightly higher aspect ratio wing was desired, which in turn required a larger vertical tail and thus a little extra mass, but the size, approximately 20% larger than a Widgeon, was set. The Mallard—it’s a trike—has a tail stinger because it otherwise falls on its tail when loading.”

Airplanes 80

Airplanes Rudder Knot Aileron 80

Photographic Logbook

JANUARY 25, 2025

More vintage cred: a V-tailed Beechcraft Bonanza! An observation of salt stains on my hangar floor ultimately led to the fire department hosing off the entire 4,800 foot long runway. I countered with aggressive right rudder and barely succeeded in keeping the plane on the runway. Oh, because of the purple. Still.not cool.

Runway 68

Runway Airplanes Threshold Approach 68

Photographic Logbook

SEPTEMBER 22, 2024

I spotted something new incongruously placed in the Curtiss hangar. He's at full takeoff power and he's got the tail up! However, turning the wheel actuates the rudder (instead of the ailerons). Lacking a German-built rotary engine to power it, Coughlin used a modern 160 horsepower radial Lycoming. The Fokker D.VI

Airplanes 56

Airplanes Runway Pilot Aileron 56

Plane and Pilot

DECEMBER 16, 2024

Planespotters note the F2’s separate ailerons and flaps, conventional tail. Airtime inhabits a large hangar at the Tulsa Riverside Airport (KRVS) where newly imported CTs are prepped, and ongoing maintenance and upgrades are carried out for aircraft in the U.S. Out back, theres an entirely new tail. Well see about that.

Airplanes 98

Airplanes Rudder Aileron Crosswind 98

Vintage Aviation News

NOVEMBER 19, 2024

Inside a former Luftwaffe hangar packed with dozens of historic aircraft, restoration workers at the Flyhistorisk Museum in Sola, Norway are now in the final stretch of rebuilding the world’s last surviving Caproni Ca.310 By 2012, the wing spars were reconstructed inside the museum’s carpentry shop. 313 was similar to that on the Ca.310.

Aileron 122

Aileron Tail Horizontal Stabilizer Cockpit 122